Yikes, it seems as if every time I start one of these posts, I have to acknowledge that it's been a while since I've last posted. Well, here we are again. And today I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet: It seems that people who've known me for many years sometimes revert to a mindset in which they see me as someone whose social judgment is the same as it was decades ago, in my teens and in my twenties. Yes, it is true. As someone on the autism spectrum, I used to be pretty bad at reading certain situations and knowing which people were an appropriate audience for my very odd sense of humor. But that was a long time ago. So what's been going on that I feel the need to write about this?
A little background: In March, I managed to get the attention of a celebrity* on social media. It happened when I began posting drawings I made of him as a cartoon character. He liked them so much that he shared a few of them with his followers, and even ended up following me. I was pretty stoked about that! Some of these drawings are "whimsical" and "cute," and others involve my strange sense of humor. In terms of the humorous drawings, well, let's just say they involve a running gag that is a little off-the-wall, complete with my trademark ridiculousness as well as a dash of irony. I was pleased that he liked them so much. However, in the interest of not being one of those pesky fans I also told him that if they started to get annoying-- these days when you tag someone in a post, it sends it to their DM instead of their regular notifications-- to let me know and I would stop. He told me, "Keep 'em coming," and said that he thought they were very funny.
Unfortunately, two of my friends have since reflexively warned me that I might be making this celebrity "uncomfortable" and to "tread lightly." One of them even bluntly implored me to "Stop harassing him." I found this to be incredibly disconcerting, what with the types of loaded words that they used. While I realize that they were not aware of me DMing the celebrity with the offer to stop posting the drawings if they got annoying, this kind of knee-jerk reaction and unsolicited advice feels like it has the subtext that these people do not trust my judgment, perhaps because of stupid things that they remember me doing twenty-ish years ago. I feel like if literally anybody else had been making these drawings, they wouldn't have tried to warn them about anything. Above all, it felt infantilizing, and I even let them know this by telling them, "You sound like my mom." Fortunately, my actual mother had not made these comments on my drawings. I was glad, because I felt like she was getting better at trusting my judgment.
Spoke too soon; the other day on the phone Mom asked me if I was going to stop doing the drawings featuring the running gag. She denies fear of me getting myself in trouble as her motive for asking me this question, but I can't imagine why she would ask that if there was not that subtext. On the same day, this guy I'm Facebook friends with (I barely know him and never met him in real life) called me out about it on a public thread instead of at least DMing me with his concerns. It was embarrassing. And like with my friends and my mom, these concerns weren't expressed in the form of, "Hey, are you sure he's okay with these jokes?" but rather a lecture, warning me of "consequences."
Consequences? What consequences? That the celebrity would sue me? I doubt they were afraid of that; that's just silly. Well, maybe this guy and my friends were afraid that the celebrity would unfollow me. Okay, and? Sure, I would be pretty disappointed if that happened, but I wouldn't lose sleep over it; it's not like I'm laboring under the delusion that I'm friends with this guy. Other than those two examples, I can't imagine what their concerns were. But I guess at the end of the day it's a knee-jerk reaction, based on difficulty of letting go of stupid mistakes I made decades ago. It really bothers me that I continually have to deal with such reactions instead of being given the benefit of the doubt that a neurotypical person would get.
I guess I am hoping that this post also serves as an open letter to people in my life who continue to have rapid-fire reactions to certain things I say and do. Look, I promise that I do know my audience. In the (admittedly limited) interaction I've had with this celebrity, the impression that I get is that he's a decent guy and, more pertinent to the situation, very laid back, silly, self-deprecating, and someone who doesn't take himself too seriously. Importantly, he seems to share my strange sense of humor. Do I know him personally? No. Can I gauge what kinds of things are funny to him? Absolutely. I've been in touch with other celebrities before (hey, drawing is a very powerful communication tool), and I can tell you that one of them did not seem to share my absurdist sense of humor. I would never have made drawings of him with the type of running gag I make of the celebrity I currently interact with. I imagine that the humor would have upset him, not made him laugh.
And, sadly, because so many people had vehemently warned me about possibly making this celebrity uncomfortable (even as he continues to follow me on social media and share my drawings), I got it in my head in a kind of heat-of-the-moment frustration that I should message him with an apology and the promise to stop doing the drawings with the running gag.
His response? "Please don't!"
*It's probably not that hard to find out who I'm talking about if you go onto my social media accounts, but I also don't want to draw unnecessary attention to him here by naming him.
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